We already know that half of Manhattan abuses Adderall, but what does an ex-addict novelist need to get writing in the morning? According to an Esquire interview with James Brown, author of Los Angeles Diaries: a lot. Writers, take note! Among other things, we learn about antidepressant Wellbutrin's pleasing stimulant qualities, especially whenn combined with something called "No-Explode..."

The Los Angeles Times recently offered an intriguing report on "cognitive enhancers," the …
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I've been diagnosed by three psychiatrists as manic-depressive with post-traumatic stress syndrome, and so I take a powerful antipsychotic drug, a small dose during the day and a big one at night, so that it knocks me out and I don't have the nightmares that have plagued me the better part of my life. But I wake up groggy, so to counter that in order to write, I double my dose of Wellbutrin (an antidepressant with stimulant qualities, and, I might add for the men out there, little to no sexual side effects as with so many SSRI's), drink two cups of coffee, a third while I'm writing, and a scoop of No-Explode, which is another stimulant concoction typically used pre-workout for weight lifters and body builders. The thing is, although I'm clean and sober and have been for some time, I need my mania to write just as the narrator in A Fine Madness needs his to live to tell the tale.